‘Russia Should Feel What It Has Done’ – Ukraine at War Update for Aug. 9

In his nightly address to the nation on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine’s recent incursion across its northeastern border with Russia was necessary for the Kremlin to finally “feel” some pain. He reminded those who questioned the move that Moscow was solely responsible for this war.

This week, some analysts and Ukrainian politicians noted that the assault on Kursk takes the pressure off of defending troops on eastern fronts. Still, Zelensky focused on the theme of retribution.

“Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done,” Zelensky said. “Ukrainians know how to achieve their goals. And we did not choose to achieve our goals in the war.”

One of Zelensky’s aides, Mykhailo Podolyak, posted Thursday on social media: “The root cause of any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuations and destruction of normal life forms, including within the Russian Federation’s own territories like Kursk and Belgorod regions, is solely Russia’s unequivocal aggression.”

In a TV interview, Podolyak added, “Would it be a positive thing to add to Russia’s losses? Yes, of course it would.”

On Thursday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Ukrainian forces have pushed to 35 km (20 miles) inside Russia, citing local milbloggers, who stressed that the troops do not appear to have attempted to hold and secure the towns as they advance.

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Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday insisted that its forces were “continuing to destroy” Ukrainian units and using air strikes, rocket and artillery fire, AFP wrote.

Citing social media posts, AFP also reported that the Ukrainian advance has focused on the strategically important hub of Sudzha, a town with just 5,000 inhabitants, only about five miles from the Ukrainian border.

Russian military bloggers reported Thursday that the AFU had made significant advances.

“The situation is complicated and continues to worsen,” Russian military blogger Yury Podolyaka posted on Telegram. “Sudzha has been completely lost.”

AFP quoted an ambulance driver named Alexei: “The situation is bad. There’s no communication” with those residents who did not follow evacuation orders.

A confused Trump agrees to the September debate on ABC with Vice President Harris

The Republican nominee for US President, Donald Trump, announced on Thursday evening that he had changed his mind and now has agreed to an offer by ABC News to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on its network Sept. 10.

Harris again confirmed she would participate.

Trump had previously said yes to a re-match with US President Joe Biden, after the latter’s dismal performance in a late-June debate on CNN. In July, however, after Biden abandoned his re-election campaign and put his weight behind Harris, Trump suddenly decided he would not accept ABC’s invitation.

For weeks, political analysts had been forecasting a windfall for the Vice President if Trump refused to show up for the ABC production, as Harris promised to appear before that national audience whether the former president participated or not.

Trump, on the other hand, was happy to appear for a debate on conservative network Fox News (whose former reporters have gone on the record as saying they collaborated on media strategy with the former president during his time in the Oval Office from 2017 to 2021.)

Recognizing that skipping the debate would be a bad look, Trump had a change of heart at his Florida resort on Thursday, announcing:

 “I think it’s very important to have debates, and we’ve agreed with Fox on a date of September 4. We’ve agreed with NBC... Fairly full agreement subject to them on September 10. And we’ve agreed with ABC on September 25,” the former president said, confusing the dates: the NBC debate is set for Sept. 25, ABC on Sept. 10.

At 78 years, Trump is the oldest presidential nominee in American history.

Never missing an opportunity for an ornery insult towards an adversary, he added: “The other side has to agree to the terms. They may or may not agree. I don’t know if they’re going to agree. [Harris] hasn’t done an interview. She can’t do an interview. She’s barely competent, and she can’t do an interview, I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight,” he said.

Ukraine’s attack on Kursk region is “completely legitimate,” Bundestag’s defense chair says

The chair of the defense committee in Germany’s lower chamber of parliament, the Bundestag, said on Thursday that Kyiv was completely justified in bringing the war across its northeastern border with Russia and that the AFU should be given carte blanche in using German-provided weapons there, in the Kursk region.

“Whoever starts a war of aggression against their neighboring country also turns their own territory into a war zone,” Marcus Faber posted to social media. “Ukraine’s attack on Kursk is completely legitimate and makes military sense," the parliamentarian wrote.

Many of Kyiv’s allies have tacitly accepted the use of their donated weaponry on Russian soil. On Wednesday, taking a cautious approach, Washington asked Ukraine’s leadership to shed some light on the operation’s objectives.

Of course, no military at war would outline the specifics of its strategy, some leaders in Kyiv this week hinted at the AFU’s broader objectives in Kursk. Olexii Honcharenko, a Ukrainian politician and People's Deputy, said that the offensive aims to force Russia to divert troops to the area, potentially reducing the level of attacks in eastern Ukraine.

Faber echoed these thoughts, saying, “It forces Russia to withdraw forces from the east.” He also noted that Ukraine is proving its ability to take the war to the Russians rather than continually responding on the defensive.

“The more successful [that Ukrainian forces in Kursk] are, the sooner the Kremlin will understand that there is nothing to be gained in Ukraine. This and only this can lead to a change of mind of the aggressor,” Faber wrote.

He also called on the Bundestag to send more equipment and ammunition to Ukraine, especially longer-range weapons such as Taurus missiles. Germany has provided just about every other weapon that Kyiv has requested, from US-made Patriot missiles to Leopard 2 tanks and armored vehicles, but Berlin is divided on the issue of Taurus deliveries, fearing increased escalation.

Earlier this week, German defense policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter told state news outlet Ukrinform in an interview that Berlin is making a mistake by delaying delivery of such weapons, stressing that “long-range precision capabilities such as Taurus and ATACMS with a 300km range remain extremely important.”